Extraordinarily, there have been two Extra Ordinary Meetings of EDDC on consecutive days this week. On Wednesday evening (25 March), councillors attended a hastily-called decisive meeting about Knowle relocation. The very next afternoon (26 March), with similar rapidity, a meeting about the revised Local Plan was fixed, with the aim of approving it.

A correspondent tells us,

‘At the second of these meetings, Cllr Claire Wright had moved two very sensible amendments which the Chief Executive did not appear to like. The first was to ask the Inspector to allow two weeks more time for public consultation on the changes which were to be agreed at this meeting. The proposal had been to allow six weeks from 1st April. As was said by Hon Alderman Vivienne Ash, this would virtually disqualify many parish councils from commenting, because of the election ‘purdah’ period in which they would not be meeting. Councillors accepted the amendment, and so it was agreed to ask the Inspector to increase the public consultation period from six, to eight weeks.

Cllr Claire Wright’s second amendment was to invite the authors of the report on which EDDC was being asked to increase housing numbers, to a meeting in the near future to explain their findings and give members the opportunity to question them. Cllr Roger Giles backed the idea, adding that two opportunities for questions to the housing numbers experts, had already been missed this week (namely at the special Development Management Committee on 23 March, and ,indeed, at the current meeting (26 March).

It was at this point that the Chief Executive made what could be taken as totally inappropriate remarks. Arguing against Cllr Wright’s amendment, Mark Williams referred to “Councillor Wright`s parliamentary ambitions” and then veered off course, lecturing the rather bemused assembly about about the Exeter wards of Topsham, and St Loye`s being part of the East Devon constituency.

Cllr Giles made a point of order, and protested that what the Chief Exec was saying was irrelevant to the debate and inappropriate.’

Many of East Devon’s electorate, who will be living with the consequences of the Local Plan, would strongly agree with Cllr Giles.